Print edition: 
Don’t blame victims for being poor
The title of the article “Speaker: Marriage reduces poverty” (Nov. 17 Eagle) told us all we needed to know about Gov. Sam Brownback’s childhood-poverty conference. The speaker, Robert Rector, used statistics showing single-parent families as poorer than families headed by two parents (a married couple), and concluded that the solution to poverty is marriage.
Just because there is a correlation between two sets of data (married couples, and single-parent households living in poverty) does not prove that the former is the solution to the latter. If Rector had considered real solutions to increase family incomes instead of pushing his ideological agenda, he might have considered strategies that help bring single parents out of poverty, such as creating more jobs with living wages and creating more subsidized child care.
Instead of proposing policy solutions to the growing poverty problem, Rector blamed the victim. Echoing the mantra of the failed drug war, his remedy is “just get married.” The governor’s war on poverty (or is it a war against the poor?) is destined for failure as well.
PATRICK F. CAMERON
Wichita
Study traffic
The city needs to do a traffic study at Wichita North High School before allowing expansion. Traffic on 13th Street between Waco and Bitting has become hazardous during morning and afternoon school hours. With the new bridge over the Big Ditch, it will get worse. Traffic now backs up for almost half a mile east and west of the school.
Fourteen school buses pass my home every day. My street is being destroyed in front of my home. The pollution and noise have increased dramatically.
Also, USD 259 is removing property from the tax rolls. There should be a requirement to offset that loss to the taxpayers and report on its impact on our tax base. What is the loss in sales-tax revenues to local government when the district removes commercial property from the tax base? Can we afford these losses at this time? Is the school’s expansion a negative impact on the neighborhood?
TOM BROWN
Wichita
Secularism better
Columnist Cal Thomas views the past as a God-fearing Arcadia where man’s baser actions were held in check only under the heavy hand of a society steeped in Christian religious authority (“Penn State’s shame also shared by society,” Nov. 16 Opinion). With the arrival of the secularist 1960s, religious authority was ignored and society settled into a hedonistic bacchanalia.
As a student and teacher of history for 25 years, I have found the past to be a fascinating but long, woeful saga of murder, cruelty and exploitation. It got particularly nasty during the peak periods of intense popular religiosity, such as the Reformation. It was secularism that gave rise to democracy, racial and sexual equality, individual liberty of lifestyle, and full freedom of thought and speech.
In Thomas’ much-vaunted past times, child abuse was probably more prevalent because the sacrosanct authority of institutions such as the church and family allowed abuses to be effectively carried out in secrecy and the victim was usually viewed as the instigator. Thomas fears that child abuse may soon be condoned “if the pressure groups and their campaign contributions grow large enough.” I am unaware of any lobbyist or political action committee representing child molesters. I agree that some popular entertainment is raunchy and puerile. However, freedom brings a variety of thought, which is not to everyone’s taste.
MARY WEHRHEIM
Wichita
Unique at conception
Regarding “Requires breath” (Nov. 14 Letters to the Editor): We could argue Bible verses all day long, and I could show that the baby in the womb has a soul. But what would that prove? Only God knows the truth.
If that’s the case, shouldn’t we err on the side of caution and assume that ensoulment takes place at conception? Also, let’s cut through the semantics. That living organism, or whatever you want to call it, has its own unique DNA different from the mother’s at conception. It also often has a different blood type, has a heartbeat 18 days after conception, and measurable brain activity fewer than 45 days after conception. It is the same as a baby a week, month or year outside of the womb, just at a different stage of development.
Yes, it is still attached to the umbilical cord, which means that it depends on the mother. But the child 1 or 2 years old also depends on the mother to feed and nurture it.
TERRY BRENNAN
Wichita
Wasn’t Obama
An Opinion Line comment said that President Obama flubbed the oath of office. It was Chief Justice John Roberts who read the wrong words. The oath was later readministered because of Roberts’ mistake.
I will defend people’s right to criticize anyone in government as long as they get their facts straight, which was clearly not the case in this instance. Such behavior is akin to all of those on the Internet who make up stories instead of informing themselves. Too bad there are so many who are willing to believe such misinformation.
MEL ZIMMERMAN
Wichita
